Douglas Rutamu and his 4-month-old daughter, Zahra, at their home in Portland. Rutamu and his partner, Jessica Morse, started the delivery service Snacks on Snacks in January. The service mostly delivers candy, but can also bring items like diapers and formula. Staff photo by Brianna Soukup

As Portland has matured into a great food city, it’s also sprouted a variety of food delivery services so residents can get their pad Thai, M&Ms, or local beer delivered right to their door.

To find out what people are ordering when they stay in on these frigid February nights, to peer into the culinary psyche of Greater Portland, we asked four food delivery services for their local stats, and threw in a traditional pizza joint for good measure. While we were at it, we mined other interesting factoids from their records. Our participants:

• Mike Bolduc’s 2DineIn has been around for a decade, and now delivers food from 77 area restaurants, ranging from ultra-casual Chicago Dogs in South Portland to Opium, an exotic bar tucked into Portland’s Danforth Inn. Their 61 drivers, ages 18 to 67, travel between 20 and 100 miles a night.

• The newcomer, Snacks on Snacks, delivers mostly candy, but if you are in need of diapers, a dozen eggs, or a bottle of Nyquil, founders Jessica Morse and Douglas Rutamu can hook you up with that, too.

• Pizza has been delivered, it seems, ever since the Stone Age, but we chose a local business, Otto Pizza, to represent the pie makers in town.

Food delivery, whether it’s delivering enchiladas directly from a restaurant or chicken wings from a third-party online delivery service such as GrubHub, DoorDash or 2DineIn, is an incredibly fast-growing business in the United States. Andrew Charles, the restaurant analyst for Cowen, a New York investment firm, predicted last summer that food delivery sales will surge from $43 billion in 2017 to $76 billion in 2022, and account for 30 percent of restaurant industry sales through 2022.

Now Portland and its ‘burbs are catching onto that trend. Here’s a look at what who’s ordering, and what’s popular:

MOST POPULAR RESTAURANT FOOD

The most popular restaurant dish ordered for delivery is pad Thai, which makes sense considering Pom’s Thai Taste in Portland is the most popular restaurant that’s signed up with 2 DineIn, followed by Benkay and Nosh Kitchen Bar. Thai takes the gold for most popular cuisine, Bolduc says. American gets the silver, and Mexican the bronze. Burgers beat pizza.

BUSIEST NIGHT OF THE WEEK

No big surprise, Friday is the busiest night of the week for restaurant take-out and pizza delivery. Booze deliveries peak on Saturday. And, for some reason, people like their gummy bears on Thursday. (Morse calls it “Treat yo’self Thursday.”)

MOST POPULAR DELIVERY PIZZA

Say what??? We thought for sure that Otto’s mashed potato, bacon & scallion pie would take first place here, but no. Apparently Mainers are either 1) boring or 2) fecund, with a lot of little cheese pizza-loving rugrats running around the house, because cheese pizza is No. 1. The mashed potato pie comes in second, and pepperoni is third.

TYPICAL CUSTOMER

Want to feel young again? Order some food delivered one evening when you’re binge-watching “Luther” on Netflix. (A great British cops show that stars the endearingly sexy Idris Elba.) Nearly across the board, our delivery services said that their customers tend to be 25- to 35-year-olds who are addicted to Netflix. Rosanna’s Ice Cream is wildly popular with expectant mothers. We can presume many of those pregnant women are between 25 and 35, but are they watching Netflix? Maybe “Three Men and a Baby?” “Rosemary’s Baby?”

The staff at the Oxford Street Shelter apparently orders a lot from Snacks on Snacks, which kind of makes sense considering what a stressful job they have. And Rosanna’s Ice Cream once had an “ice cream hand-off” in the parking lot of a credit union. But 2DineIn wins this category hands down. The restaurant delivery service has dropped off food at the Portland jetport for a pilot who was on a 30-minute layover. They’ve delivered to a couple having their first date – a picnic – on the Eastern Prom. And they regularly deliver to a Starbucks in Falmouth, where the driver meets a customer who bought a house outside the 2DineIn delivery zone and now picks up his food order there.

MOST EXPENSIVE SPIRIT

Yes, Fireball Cinnamon Whiskey is a best-seller at Old Port Spirits, but the most expensive liquor they’ve delivered so far is Lagavulin single malt Scotch, aged 16 years. It costs just over $70 for a 750 ml bottle.

People in the Portland area order more Cocoa Pebbles from Snacks on Snacks than any other cereal. Maxwell Photography/Shutterstock.com

MOST POPULAR CEREAL

Hey, all you moms who forced your kids to eat Grape Nuts and All-Bran, see what your nutritional anxieties hath wrought: Your adult children are acting like cigarette-smoking lab monkeys, ordering more Cocoa Pebbles from Snacks on Snacks than any other cereal.

CELEBRITY CUSTOMERS

2DineIn delivered to Tegan and Sara when they were performing at the State Theater (don’t worry, we had to Google them too), but mostly the managers at 2DineIn like giving their drivers heart attacks by telling them they’re delivering a pie to Tom Brady – who turns out to be a regular person with a famous name. (Good one, guys.) By far, the most brushes with greatness belong to Otto drivers, both here in Maine and in Massachusetts, where they have six locations. In Maine, most of their celebrity encounters revolve around deliveries to bands and comedians who are playing in town. Celebrity customers have included Snoop Dogg, Wilco, Jason Isbell (yeah, had to look that one up too), Spoon, Interpol, and They Might Be Giants. And, while it’s not delivery, Otto has served the GOAT’s actual father, Tom Brady Sr., at its Congress Street location. In Boston, the Red Sox are regular Otto customers, with multiple deliveries to Fenway Park – including one big delivery after the last World Series Parade.

Idexx and Sappi in Westbrook, and Rowdmaps in Portland, are regular 2DineIn customers, but right now, Bolduc says, a certain Portland tax office has been ordering large orders every night to keep its employees fed during tax season. Lush Cosmetics in the Maine Mall is one of Rosanna’s Ice Cream’s best customers.

Haribo, hands down. (And now, good luck getting that Haribo jingle out of your head.) Snacks on Snacks sells four different kinds – gummy bears, berries, snakes and cherries – but the best-seller by far is the snakes. “People love the sweet-sour combo,” Morse said.

BUSIEST HOLIDAYS FOR DELIVERY

Unsurprisingly, Halloween and the night before Thanksgiving are the busiest nights for pizza delivery. Gotta get those kids to eat something before they stuff themselves on Halloween candy, and families are too busy making green bean and sweet potato casseroles ahead the night before Thanksgiving to think about cooking dinner. When it comes to wine and spirits, though, the days leading up to Hanukkah and Christmas are the busiest, as people are buying bottles as gifts. (About 5 percent of Old Port Spirits’ deliveries are gifts.) This year, one man ordered bottles to be delivered to seven friends in Portland. 2DineIn closes on major holidays, but they are swamped on Valentine’s Day, when presumably all the lonely hearts order dinner in to share with their celebrity Netflix crushes. (Idris? My house. Tonight. You order the wine, I’ll cancel your plans with your new fiancee.)

BUSIEST NEIGHBORHOODS FOR DELIVERY

Pizza? East End of Portland. Snacks? East End, followed by Willard Beach in South Portland. Beer, wine and spirits? Portland’s West End imbibes most often. It also eats the most ice cream. Restaurant food? Portland’s East and West Ends are tied, followed by the Parkside neighborhood.

WE CAN’T QUIT YOU, OREOS

Oreos are Portland’s most popular snack, and Coffee Oreo ice cream is the favorite among Rosanna’s customers.

POPCORN OR CHIPS?

Southern Maine loves its chips, according Snacks on Snacks. And not just any old chips. Kettle’s Spicy Queso chips are the most popular – and sold out at this writing.

SNACK THE SNACKS ON SNACKS PEOPLE CAN’T STOP EATING THEMSELVES

Yes, they DO dip into the stash. “I’m the sole reason we’re out of stock on Twix bars,” Morse said. “I’m so ashamed.”

STRANGEST ORDERS

A Snacks on Snacks customer ordered Mint Chocolate Chip ice cream, a bottle of Pepto-Bismol and two single rolls of toilet paper. We won’t speculate which they used first.

LARGEST ORDERS

One freezing cold night, a mom ordered $75 worth of organic formula, diapers and Infant Tylenol from Snacks on Snacks. Morse has a 4-month-old, so she could relate. Rosanna’s once received an order for 15 pints of ice cream, and 2DineIn delivered $675 worth of Flatbread flatbreads to a wedding reception. Otto delivered 600 pizzas (5,000 slices) to Rockaway in Queens, N.Y., after Hurricane Sandy – but that was a donation, not a customer’s order.

PEPSI OR DIET COKE?

It’s an age-old question, debated in countless TV commercials. Snacks on Snacks has the answer: Diet Coke all day.

CHOCOLATE OR VANILLA ICE CREAM?

Chocolate wins, Wason says.

SLOWEST NIGHT OF THE YEAR

For Otto, it’s the day after the Super Bowl, when people are still recovering from grazing at big spreads of chicken wings, chili and meatballs. Monday is also their slowest night of the week.

BEER, WINE OR SPIRITS?

Spirits, then wine, then beer. Looks as if beer drinkers still rely on the corner convenience store for their last-minute six-pack.

No surprises here. Courtesy of Allagash

BEST-SELLING LOCAL BEER

Allagash White. But you knew that already, didn’t you?

BEST-SELLING SPIRIT

Jim Beam, a brand of Kentucky bourbon sold by a subsidiary of a Japanese company, apparently “trumps” all-American Jack Daniels, made in Tennessee. (See what we did there?)

RED, WHITE, ROSE, OR SPARKLING WINE?

The most popular wine Old Port Spirits delivers is La Marca Prosecco, a bubbly produced in a region of Italy north of Venice and made from a grape called Glera. It costs just over $15 per bottle.

MOST POPULAR MIXER

Fever-Tree Mediterranean Tonic Water, for sophisticated vodka drinkers who daydream about drinking gin and tonics under the blazing African sun. At least that’s what we gathered after reading about it online.

MOST DIFFICULT ICE CREAM FLAVOR TO MAKE

Anything with stripes. To celebrate the Super Bowl, Wason made “Gronkberry Crunch” (named after Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski) – stripes of strawberry, vanilla, and blueberry, with chocolate-dipped Nilla wafers – and it took all day. Almost as long as it took for the Patriots to get their game going.

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